Office.] Commiffioners on FEES, GRATUITIES, & c. xcix becomes material to recur to its original formation, to afcertain whether afc that e, xhlb'fd ^ irly the produce of each Road, and weSthen p"^ to enquire how for the fame end was effected hy its application^ fSSqSSS^ T It does not appear that the Returns of the three years average underwitany C'h Tt by Grr, ent 0r the Poftm^ ers Geuera! an5 though it is to be prefumed that the Poftmafters General, before they recom- mended this grant, bad as they hedged, minutely enquired into the lodes fuf- tamed, and were perfectly fatisfied of the correftnefs of the Statements in the APPeudix( A) N-* Memorial, and that Government would not have yielded to the prayer of it without all due information ; it is to be regretted that no evidence of that nature exiits at this day, and the more fo, as from the great infirmity of Sir John Eees we are deprived of that teftimony which his intimate acquaintance with the whole tranfaft, on would have qualified him to give. We have therefore been obliged to refort to fuch evidence as the nature of the cafe would admit of, which though it confifts principally of the examinations of the perfous accufed, and of documents coming out of their poffeffion, appears to us fufficiently corroborated to warrant a fatisfa6tory conclufion. The average Return for the'Leinftcr Road for the three years ending the 5th of January 1801, was 47 quires 19 fheets, producing 849. is. id. Mr. Armit, who has conduded the bufinefs of the Leinfter Road for Sir John Lees, for nearly twenty years as he ftates, produced to us Ins books relating thereto, which he has verified upon catli; we have alfo had APPendix( B) before us a Statement extracted from them by a perfon intelligent in accounts, and verified by his oath, exhibiting the fums received for Newspapers in that Road, and the payments made thereout in the above three years, and from an APPendi* ( B) N* ® . examination of thefe documents it appears to us, that the net produce or the average profits of the Road, as returned to the Poftmafter General, were fome- what lefs than their a& ual amount as fhown by this Account, and the number of Papers ftated to have been the circulation of this Road, being compared with the quantity produced by the payments to Printers, appear to be alfo lefs than the aftual quantity fo found to have been iff'ued, and that the circulation of the APPendix ^ N" 8' Road was under- rated accordingly; to this Return no obje& ion can be made, it being decidedly in favour of the Public. The average Return of the North Road was 24 quires 3 fheets, and the produce ^£. 408. 10. Mr. James Twigg, the Clerk w ho held the North Road in 1802, A emJix( B\ N. fuceeeded to it about the middle of the year 1799, was foon after obliged PPenix<. from ill health to discontinue doing duty as an efficient Officer in the Poft Office. He was, as we are informed, an able and intelligent Officer, hut his infirmities feem to have rendered him incapable of conducing bufinefs with his former ability. His Return of the profits of the Road for the three years ending 5th January 1801, appears, ( he having been in poffeffion of the Road for about half that time only) Appendix ( B) N* to have been made up from an Eftimate of its produce previous to his appointment, according to the information afforded him by the Clerk employed by his prede- ceflor, and from a view of the amount thereof while he held the Road himfelf; and he ftates that in framing the Account he proceeded upon the principle of • exhibiting the net profits or attual income that might be derived from the circu- lation of the Road, and that he endeavoured to make it up as corre& ly as he could, expecting to be called upon to verify it upon oath. This Officer does not appear to have kept any regular Cafh Accounts of the produce of the Road, his principal book, called tlie Correfponding Book, containing only the names of the perfons ordering Newspapers, and the time for which they were fupplied, without any entry of the date of payment of their fubferiptions, his aftual receipts therefore within any period coufd not be now afcertained, as when a Paper appears to have been ordered in one year and difcontinued in another, there are no means ot diftinguifhing the vear in which it was paid for; at the fame time the produce of the Road for a number of years, might be afcertained from fuch entries with a tolerable degree of corre& nefs if they were regularly made, but in diftant years they appear! n many inftances fo mixed and confufed, that wedo not think it would be practicable at prefent to make out from them an exaft Account. His profits as returned amounted, as we have before mentioned, to £. 408. 10. being at the rate 01 about i3f. 6f d. a Paper; but confidering that the circulation of the Road previous to his appointment, is reprefented to have been from 22 to 30 quires a n jo- Jit the latter quantity having been circulated in the firft year of the period Appendix ( B) N « 9 for which the average was taken, we think it probable, fuppofing his predeceffor to have been fubjeft to no greater lofs than the other Clerks, that he under- rated his income, and'this feems to have been his intention; for as the former Clerk 366. c c had ifh 3 I! II Hi